A lack of focus leads to terrible decision-making
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A lack of focus is a symptom of and contributor to poor decision-making.
When you don’t have focus you might find yourself avoiding taking quick decisions. You might even avoid decisions all together.
One reason is that, without focus, it’s hard to get consensus on whether a decision is good or bad for the organisation. That’s why we try to encourage Boards and leadership teams to move to a model of decision-making by consent instead.
Consensus tends to end up with everyone getting their idea into the decision. A minestrone soup of a decision: everything gets thrown in the pot.
Decision-making by consent means that an individual can only object to a decision if they believe that it will damage the organisation.
If they don’t like it, or don’t understand it because they didn’t read the Board papers, then they can’t object and slow things down. They can’t stop the decision at all.
And sometimes leadership teams can take simple decisions and waste away time and effort on them, while leaving no energy for the decisions that will define them for years to come.
As James Clear puts it:
“I think about decisions in three ways: hats, haircuts, and tattoos. Most decisions are like hats. Try one and if you don’t like it, put it back and try another. The cost of a mistake is low, so move quickly and try a bunch of hats.
“Some decisions are like haircuts. You can fix a bad one, but it won’t be quick and you might feel foolish for a while. That said, don’t be scared of a bad haircut. Trying something new is usually a risk worth taking. If it doesn’t work out, by this time next year you will have moved on and so will everyone else.
“A few decisions are like tattoos. Once you make them, you have to live with them. Some mistakes are irreversible. Maybe you’ll move on for a moment, but then you’ll glance in the mirror and be reminded of that choice all over again. Even years later, the decision leaves a mark. When you’re dealing with an irreversible choice, move slowly and think carefully.”
What decisions are you putting off at the moment that are probably just hat decisions, or even awkward haircuts you could put up with? And can you now find some focus to tackle the tattoo decisions, before you run out of time to do some proper thinking?
